City of Graham provides water improvement project updates

In August, the city spoke on water improvement projects and Graham City Manager Brandon Anderson gave an update on a timeline of water roadblocks and where the city was headed on future projects. The Graham City Council was updated Thursday on major projects within the city which were the Texas Street water line improvement project, improvements to the Tackett Lift Station, an update on financing for the alternate water line to the city and movement on an elevated water tank for Spivey Hill.

Texas Street water line replacement

The city council approved a resolution in October 2020 allowing the grant management firm Grant Works, Inc., to move forward with a Texas Community Block Grant application to the Texas Department of Agriculture. The grant was to be used for infrastructure repairs on Texas Street, an area Anderson said in October 2020 the city tried to tackle six or seven years prior. The city manager made the announcement Thursday the city was awarded the grant.

“We actually got awarded this grant,” he said. “The grant is only for $350,000 and so when we were sitting down with our engineer and the grant administrator we went ahead and had them draw up the project serving all of Texas Street, replacing all of the water line on Texas Street all the way from Fourth Street to Calaveras. That project is a total of $608,000. So, yes, this is a grant of $350,000, so that would leave ($258,000) of it outstanding for us to cover with our own funds. Staff and I are bringing this forward and ultimately this is ready to go, stamped (and) the project moving forward, but we would have to go into reserves and utilize $258,860. But we are paying 50% for a project that our goal is then our own staff go in and do Tennessee (Street) the next year and that would take care of Tennessee and Texas for a very long time moving forward. (...) we would have a big chunk of it already paid for out of pocket so that’s what we are proposing. We can easily go back to them and say ‘Hey we need to change the scope of this project and get it down to ($350,000) if we don’t want to invest any city funds. But I believe it is prudent at this point with as much issue as we’ve got with our water lines that we go ahead.”

Since the topic requires a budget amendment to bring $258,860 out of a reserve fund  it was tabled until the next meeting for action by the council. Anderson said the city water reserve fund has accrued around $2.6 million which can be used for the project.

Graham Public Works Director Randall Dawson said the water line for Texas Street was chosen due to its condition. He said the water line is directly in the street in some areas and in other areas it is only submerged by around two feet. The line is cast iron and was placed in 1942.

For the rest of the story, see the Nov. 13 edition of The Graham Leader.